


In which humanity is considered as lusii by a conquering troll empire

by TheLadySyk0



Series: The conquering of Earth by an invading troll army [1]
Category: Homestuck, warbound widow
Genre: Alien Invasion, Gen, Grubs, Humans as Lusii, I promise a happy ending, Lusii, Science Experiments, Subjuggulators, Treason, but not bad!, butt-hurt subbjugulator, cute grubs, grub cuteness, mentions of gore, might get a lil dark, mobile computation unit, psiionic - Freeform, psiionics, scienterrorists, troll society
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-23
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-08 18:50:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 14,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3219614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadySyk0/pseuds/TheLadySyk0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an earth being conquered by Trolls, one scienterrorist considers the idea that humans once properly enslaved would make excellent lusii. This is her original experiment for lususing capabilities as conducted on a human male.</p><p>light-hearted for the most part despite the fact that Earth is being conquered, will probably be pretty short. Really its just an excuse for grubs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which a teal-blooded scienterrorist spews plot

Your name is Buturi Bartah and you happen to be a teal-blooded scienterrorist

The Empire has taken you to their latest conquest planet, a small blue planet that the natives have called “Earth” or “Terra”. You doubt that the empire will keep the name once the planet is conquered, but its an important factor in naming the natives of this planet. You are debating whether to call the creatures who live here “Earthlings”, “Earthicans” or perhaps “Terrans”.

Speaking of the natives, they are such fascinating creatures! In all of the previous conquests of the empire you have yet to see an alien race that resembles the troll race as much as the natives of Earth (Terra?). 

There are some major distinctions between the races of course, terrans are smaller, only growing to about the size of a juvenile troll. Terrans lack horns and horn-sense (you wonder how they get around) and have softer skin and hair. They only have one blood color (bright scandalous red) but their eyes and hair come is a dizzying array of colors. Where a troll eye is grey as a juvenile and the same solid color as their blood as an adult, human eyes can be many many different colors all at the same time! You’ve seen samples of humans with bright gold eyes with green and teal flecks, starbursts of teal around the pupil of a brown eyes, some are even spotted! Their hair is also fascinating, their hair ranges anywhere from a bright white or a pale yellow, to deep reds, browns, golds, the familiar trollish black, and anything inbetween!

You hear that some of the higher ups have taken to using the soft and colorful hair in embroidery projects. You think you can understand that, why buy gold thread when there are creatures who can grow them?

Human skin also comes in a wide variety of colors, anywhere from pale white to deep, almost black brown and anything inbetween. Some are dotted with strange little brown marks called “Freckles”. From your research you found that humans used to have a subjugation system based on their skin colors, you wonder if it was spectrum based on the degree of color? Even more surprising is that in your research it was found that humans had abolished this system and were actively destroying all remnants of it in their culture.

It was always assumed in your society that if the hemospectrum subjugation system was destroyed that your entire culture would dissolve into anarchy and destroy itself. That's why rebels were so dangerous. The only way Trolls survived as a species, was that they were controlled so tightly. However, the Terrans (or humans), at least based off your research were doing so well after abolishing their system, they were making such progress before the Empire came that-

You try to quell such traitorous thoughts. In a society where mind readers exist you can’t even THINK such thoughts. That could’ve been disastrous. You quickly look up from your workstation, you almost feel like at any second one of your co-workers will jump up from their station and out you as a traitor of the Empire and recite your blasphemous thoughts for all to hear. Its thoughts like that, that gets troll’s quadrant mates killed, along with themselves. You think of your little yellow-blooded moirail Yandah at the hands of a subjuggulator and shudder.

Anyways, what you’re most interested about in humans is their lususing capabilities. Terrans lusus their own offspring, they can take care of multiple offspring at the same time and have been known to take in offspring not genetically their own. They also regularly take in the young of other species, like the young of the dog or the cat and raise the creature for companion purposes.

Trolls as a species are “brood parasites”, meaning that they use other species to raise their young. Suitable lusii on Alternia has always been a precious commodity. When broods first started exceeding lusii numbers in the pre-cellestial period, screening measures were put in place to make sure no deformed, mutated or ill grubs were to be given lusii, then it was only the best out of the healthy grubs, then the best of those, until the grub trials became as brutal as they are today. Now there are grubs who complete all of the trials set out for them only to come to the surface and not be chosen due to lack of lusii.

Its an incredibly irritating problem, think of all of the great soldiers who died at the brooding cavern exit. You’re sure that the highbloods wouldn't care so much if it were just rust-blooded grubs who got left behind, but lusii don’t abide by the hemospectrum and rust to violet-blooded grubs get left behind equally.

Which is why a species like the Terrans could be so valuable. Once Terra is conquered the remaining Terrans could be enslaved for lususing uses. Its absolutely genius! Not only that but think of having a lusus that could properly communicate! Alternian lusii are intelligent but none of them can talk. Terran language is strangely musical, without all the harsh clicks and whirrs and growls of the troll language, but it is still a language. And just think of the possibilities of teaching a human to speak Alternian! They would be able to speak with their grubs! Rationally explain away the fears of grubhood, gives grubs a head start on language! 

You loved your bird-mom dearly, but there's only so many problems that can be solved with squawking and regurgitated insects.

Also inexperienced lusii are known to tear open their grub’s pupation cocoons because they’re worried about their grubs and accidentally kill them when they do so. It would be so nice to have lusii that you could explain things to, give instructions.

Which is exactly why you've been given clearance to conduct your current experiment!


	2. in which a human thinks he's going to die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this guy has obviously watched too many sci-fi movies

You've been given a captured Terran and ten troll eggs. You have an egg for every slot on the hemospectrum, barring fuchsia and any mutant blood colors there might be. Troll eggs are pretty cheap, the mothergrub lays thousands at a time so it really wasn't hard to order one of each.

The Terran is a male, you would suspect that the females would be better lususes because of their lactation abilities (can they control it? is that where humans get their milk products?) but beggars can’t be choosers and males of their species also take care of their young.

He seems young, a new adult, with teal and brown eyes and dingy yellow hair. He probably would've been scalped for that color if his hair would've been long enough to do anything with.

You've cleaned out a holding cell beforehand and now you drag the unconscious human into the center and place the eggs in a circle around him. This is so interesting! You wonder which one he will choose! Will the human choose the grub that most closely matches his own blood color, the rust one? Or perhaps the human will choose a grub based on the colors present in his eyes, either the copper or the teal one? Or perhaps he will choose the yellow grub based on his hair color? You settle in by your monitor and wait for him to wake up.

You see him stirring about fifteen minutes after you placed him in the cell. He slowly sits up and puts a hand on his head as he groans.

And then he promptly freaks the fuck out.

You were expecting the Terran to consider each egg carefully before coming to a decision, and to be quiet while he did so, which is why the terrified screaming coming from the speakers is so distracting. You turn on the translator to see why he’s so upset, are the eggs not to his standards? The translator whirrs and crackles before finally translating the screams.

“OH MY (word for a terran diety) I’M GOING TO DIE”

Calm down idiot, you’re not going to die yet, they’re just eggs. How can eggs kill anyone?

“ITS JUST LIKE THAT MOVIE (word for organisms not native to Terra) WHERE THE EGGS HATCH AND FACE-HUGGERS JUMP OUT AND LATCH ONTO YOUR FACE AND PUT (word for a non-native organism combined with the human word for wiggler) IN YOUR GUT TO POP OUT OF YOUR CHEST HOLY FUCK”

Huh, it kinda sounds like how you breed monsters in fidusspawn. Though seriously. That's not how troll grubs work.

“I’M TOO PRETTY TO DIE”

Fine, you admit that he’s pretty, but everyone dies not matter how pretty their eyes are, or how soft their yellow hair lo- just. just EVERYONE DIES. This idiot really needs to get a hold of himself. Seriously, they’re just eggs. You wonder if the field team brought you the stupidest Terran they could find as a joke.

Just then one of the eggs start to hatch, the yellow one by the looks of it. The human’s scream becomes even more high pitch and you turn down the volume on your speakers.

Finally the yellow grub’s head pops up from the top of the egg. You can see the beady little eyes and a pair of tiny horns. The grub has the kind of horns that point down towards the head, you had a matesprit once with horns like that, they had to wear horn-braces for sweeps or else their horns would have pierced their skull eventually.

There's a long silence where the human just stares at the grub. The grub stares back.

Then the little little grub gives a confused “peep?”.


	3. In which a grub is named "Penelope"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> grubs grubs grubs

The Terran breaks out into the biggest most delighted grin you've ever seen (terran teeth are so weird) and he promptly picks the grub out of the gooey remains of the egg.

“AWWWWW YOU’RE SO CUUUUTE”

You don’t really understand why anyone would think a grub is cute (They’re mostly just gross) but the human seems happy enough making random noises while rubbing his face against the grub (eww).

“I’m going to name you Penelope!”

Wait what? No, he can’t do that! That's nowhere near the ancestral name of this grub and “Penelope” isn't even six letters!

“Look at your teeny weeny bug legs! so cuuuute”

The human then manipulates the grub’s tiny limbs to imitate the motions of dancing. That is NOT the proper use of a grub!

“da da ta, da da ta, I’m Penelope, the dancing alien baby!”

What the actual hell is he doing?

Just then the other eggs start to hatch as well. You had assumed that the Terran had chosen the yellow-blooded grub and would ignore the other grubs like a good lusus but he helps each grub out of its egg and coos over each of them in turn.

He is completely covered in egg slime, the rust grub is on his shoulder, nibbling curiously on his ear, the copper grub is climbing into one of his shoes that he took off, the yellow grub is sleeping in his shirt pocket, the olive grub is trying to burrow into his hair, the teal grub is chewing on one of the buttons of his shirt, the cerulean grub is trying to climb into his pants pocket and the cobalt and indigo grubs are nestled together in his jacket purring. This whole situation is so gross, you can’t imagine letting grubs crawl over you like that, but the Terran seems ridiculously happy.

He currently has the violet sea-dweller grub in his hand and has a thoughtful look on his face.

“so you’re one of the fishy-aliens?”

If he ever expected a real answer from the grub, all he got was a peep and a purr from the tiny sea-dweller.

“I’m going to name you Ariel! after the little mermaid!”

He’s named every single grub so far. Ruby, Jack, Penelope, Maya, Louis, Bruce, Wade, Charolotte, Wilbur, and now finally “Ariel”. Also you had no idea that Terrans had sea-dwellers, this should be investigated.

The Terran picks up the olive blood from his hair with the other hand and starts to sing-

~”sha la la la don’t be scared, you've got the moves prepared, go on and kiss the girl, whoa whoa!”~

He then presses the olive grub and the sea-dweller’s faces together in a fake kiss and starts to giggle uncontrollably.

You’re never going to understand humans. you doubt that humans understand humans.


	4. in which there are theatrics over the lack of a can-opener

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok just to be clear
> 
> rust grub-Ruby  
> Copper grub-Jack  
> Yellow grub-Penelope  
> Olive grub-Maya  
> Jade grub-Louis  
> Teal grub-Bruce  
> Cerulean grub-Wade  
> Cobalt-Charlotte  
> Indigo-Wilbur  
> Violet-Ariel

The next day you gather some food granules that you were assured were adequate for grubs, and some Terran food brought in from the field.

There's a small mechanical door in the wall of the cell for feeding (should you choose to feed your prisoners). One slides a tray from the outside of the cell, the outer door is locked and then the door on the inside of the cell is unlocked and opens to reveal the food.

You load the tray with the grub granules and a metal cylinder of Terran food labeled “Honey baked beans”

You hope Terran honey is nothing like Alternian mind-honey. You doubt that anyone would mind if you got your Terran high but that's really not the purpose of this experiment.

What you DO want to observe today is how the Terran divides the food among the grubs, perhaps the Terran will show which grub he favors most.

The Terran is awakened by the metal whirring of the cell door. He bolts straight up and in the process dislodges the rust grub that was sleeping on his forehead. Luckily he has the mind to catch the grub in his hands quickly before the grub would've landed on the floor.

“sorry about that Ruby”

The grub glares at him, gives a tiny growl and huffs to voice their displeasure at being awakened.

The rest of the grubs are also slowly starting to wake up. The cerulean grub uncurls and yawns, spreading out their tiny fore-limbs. The indigo, jade and copper grubs start to stir from where they were curled together in the crook of his knee. The yellow pokes their head out from his shirt pocket (that seems to be her preferred place). The olive and the violet grubs start to chase each other around the cell and the cobalt grub puts their tiny fore-limbs over their eyes and grumbles from their place on his upper thigh.

The Terran looks around at the bland cell and sighs.

“Well this is weird”

He picks up the copper grubs and turns it to look him in the eyes.

“Do you know whats going on jack?”

The grub only chirrs and starts to nibble on his thumb.

“That's what I thought…”

Next he picks up the indigo grub and turns it to face him as well.

“Wilbur, where are your goddamn parents?”

The grub only sticks out his tiny tongue and starts to purr.

The Terran stands up and starts to pace from one end of the cell to the other. All ten grubs trot after him to and fro as he paces the cell.

“Ok, so I was scouting ahead of the group when this ginormous green alien chick comes out of like, nowhere, and clubs me on the head, I wake up in a cell full of alien eggs, but like, not the kind that have face-huggers in them, the kind with cute baby aliens in them. So why hasn't any of the aliens killed me yet? Did they think the babies would kill me? Because no offense guys, y’all don’t seem the kill-y type. Why hasn't any of your parents come to get you guys yet? Do you have parents?”

The grubs seem content to follow the human wherever he goes like honk-beast chicks. The Jade grub is currently riding on his left shoe and chirrs with excitement every time the human takes a step.

The human then notices the tray of food and stops his pacing. He lifts the tray out of the compartment and gives it a thoughtful look.

“ok, so whatever is going on, someone did it on purpose, because if they did it on accident they wouldn't bother to feed me, or you guys, or whatever”

He examines the grub granules and the food cylinder.

“So I’m guessing the dog-food type stuff is for you guys and the beans are for me. But wait!!”

He seems to search the tray for something

“There’s no can-opener!! Dammit aliens, how am I supposed to get my bean on without a can-opener? Woe is me! So close, and yet so far away….”

You’re really starting to get tired of this human’s theatrics.

The human drops to both knees, throws his hands in the air (still clutching the beans)

“DAMN YOU!! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!”

This is of course accompanied by copious amounts of obviously fake sobbing as the human flings himself to the floor (careful not to squish any grubs you notice). The grubs start to crowd around him and are obviously worried by his behavior. Some of the grubs give worried little peeps while others climb onto his chest and lick his hands in an effort to sooth him.

For the love of the empire. This is getting ridiculous. Why doesn't he open the cylinder with his cla-

Oh, right. Humans don’t have any claws.

You quickly scan your work-station for something to open the cylinder with. You choose a small knife and quickly put it into the feeder door. Hopefully this will stop the human from being QUITE so annoying. You watch as the human pauses mid-theatrics to observe the feeder door opening to reveal the knife.

“oh, hey cool! this will work! wait a minute…”

He looks around the cell.

“How did they know I needed a can opener?…”


	5. In which a teal scienterrorist does NOT want the hot bod

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> poor Buturi, putting up with this idiot human.

Oh shoot! How could you have been so foolish?! You’ve just given yourself away!

The screen is suddenly filled with one teal and brown human eye.

“Ah ha! a camera!!”

The extreme close-up of his eye zooms out as he backs from the camera to reveal his face. He turns from one side, then the other, bares his teeth and makes several faces. You realize that he must be using the camera lense as a mirror.

“Yup, still sexy as ever”

You roll your eyes. The field team definitely got the stupidest terran they could find.

The Terran then picks up the cobalt and the jade grubs, one in each hand and starts to pose in front of the camera, flexing his muscles in different positions.

“Hello there aliens” he says in a mock sultry voice.

“Like what you see?” eyebrow wiggle.

No. Nope. not at all. Who’s blushing? Certainly not you. You hide your face in your claws and try to will away the teal from your cheeks.

“I guess all the bitches want this sweet bod. Even intergalactic bitches”

NO!!!!

In your righteous denial of wanting his “sweet bod” you didn't realize that you shouted that out loud. You also didn't realize that you've stood up. You sheepishly apologize to your co-workers sharing the space with you, and sit back down. Again, you hide your face in your claws as you hear them either growl or giggle at you.

Fuck this human. BUT NOT LIKE THAT!

You growl to yourself as the human continues to talk.

“whatever. I have no fucking idea whats going on. Do you know whats going on Charlotte?”

He seemed to be addressing that last remark to the cobalt grub.

“Charlotte” the cobalt grub, only wraps herself around his wrist and coos at him.

“Well-said alien baby, I think it is time to stop worrying about aliens masturbating while looking at us and eat some breakfast”

YOU WEREN'T. YOU DIDN'T. WHY. WHAT? NEVER!

Ugh! This human!


	6. In which a human eats beans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i really did think this was going to be short but then i up and made a plot.

He serves the grubs first. Making ten roughly equal portions of the grub granules and then placing a portion in front of each grub. It seems that the Terrans do not abide by the hemospectrum. The human then proceeds to open the cylinder with the knife and starts to eat the beans.

At one point the cerulean grub finishes their portion and tries to steal some food from the teal grub. The teal grub objects and both grubs arch their backs and start to hiss and growl at each other.

The human picks both grubs up and gives them a serious look.

“Enough! everyone gets the same portion of food.”

The human puts both grubs down and points a pink claw-less finger at the cerulean grub

“no stealing Wade!”

The grub hunches a little and peeps apologetically.

The human then points his finger at the Teal grub.

“No fighting Bruce, come to me and I’ll fix it”

The grub peeps and apologetically licks his finger.

How interesting, the human acts as both lusus and auspice at the same time. Perhaps this is the secret to how humans raise multiple of their own young at the same time. At the doors of the brooding caverns of Alternia, if a lusus were to be interested in two grubs, the grubs would engage in combat and only the winner (or survivor) would be taken by the lusus.

He then puts down the empty can of beans and lets the grubs lick the sauce from the can and his fingers. when the olive wiggler gets stuck in the can he calms her panicked peeping and gently eases her from the can, shooshing her gently and wiping away tiny green tears.

And now he acts like a moirail to them! At first you feel like yelling at him to pick a quadrant already but then you realize that perhaps you are treating him too much like a troll. Bird-mom certainly calmed you when you were frightened. But Bird-mom was never able to speak to you. He isn't quite a lusus, but he certainly isn't a troll either.

Later that night he again cuddles the grubs to himself before falling asleep. You can’t help but see a bit of bird-mom in him, she used to tuck you under her massive wings in the same way he holds the grubs in the crooks of his arms.

He sings quietly in the strange musical language of the terrans and once again you can’t help but think of your bird-mom. She would always sing to you and groom your hair with her beak as you fell asleep in her nest.

Terran singing really is like bird song.

You watch him sleep and feel so terribly homesick.

You need to talk with your moirail Yandah.


	7. in which a moirail named Yandah and a butt-hurt subjuggulator are introduced

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> plot plot  
> I'm trying to keep these chapters short so yup.

Yandah Yubahn is a yellow-blooded psiionic who is being used as a mobile computation unit. 

When psiionics aren't good enough to be put into the massive hard drives of warships, usually they end up as “mobile computation units”. They’re still super-computers, even if they’re nowhere near as powerful as helmsmen, and are used in conquest for data gathering in combat zones from enemy computers (that is if the enemy is advanced enough to use computers).

You first met her when she was brought in to be fitted with a biological-to-mechanical converter in order to link with the terran computers. You still find it amusing that the terrans still use mechanical computers.

Hee hoo, silly aliens.

Anyways, your meeting was truly destined! You've never had a more loyal moirail than Yandah! It’s a shame that you only get to talk to her when her squad returns from battle and she returns to your lab for tune-ups.

Her squad is led by a ruthless indigo named Churro Chandi. He is a tall and fearsome looking creature with blood matted hair and scarred hands, but for some reason the humans all burst out laughing when they hear his name. He had gotten quite touchy about it after about the 20th human laughed in his face. His demeanor has only gotten worse as no matter how many humans he’s killed for laughing the new batches still laugh anyways.

You have no idea what “Churro” means to the humans, or why they yell out “YOU MEAN LIKE THE PASTRY??” but you can think of no more frightening word than “Churro”.

“Churro”. 

It makes you shudder just thinking about it.

He also tends to...linger whenever you’re patching up Yandah. He sits in the back and watches you.

You wonder if he can read your thoughts.

Anyways, now that Yandah is back, you’ll be able to talk to her about your human problem!


	8. In which a yellow-blooded computation unit is scandalous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yandah is the rebellious moirail. she can kinda do what she wants because she doubles as a valuable piece of equipment that no one wants to replace but if you think this kind of audacity leads to bad places in the empire. You're exactly right.
> 
> Its a grub-less chapter with plot I'm so sorry.

Yandah has (very rebelliously) taken to the human practice of dying her hair. She can get away with this because if she were to be killed, all the data stored in her cells would be lost. You know that if they really wanted to kill her they would just forcibly download her data onto another computation unit, but that takes ordering a new bio-unit, reconditioning that new unit and waiting until after the data transfer is complete. No one wants to put that much effort for a low-blood so they all tolerate her minor rebellions.

You see her yellow hair and hooked horns and run to her.

It been too long since you've seen her, her dyed yellow hair tickles your nose as you hug her.

After exchanging pleasantries and listening to Yandah’s tales from the combat zone you take her to see your latest experiment.

She leans over your workstation, yellow hair cascading over her shoulders as she watches the human tug a shoelace back and forth for the grubs to chase on your monitor.

“wow” she exclaims. “Humans really ARE lusii”

You tell her about how the human chose ALL of the grubs and his antics. She snorts when she hears about the “sweet bod” incident.

“You sure you don’t want the bod?” she can barely contain her giggles. “He IS kinda cute, you can do whatever you want with your human you know, I won’t judge!!”

You’re lucky that your co-workers graciously gave you two privacy (you’re the highest on the hemospectrum in this particular lab) when they heard your moirail was in, because you can feel your blush extend all the way to the tips of your long ears.

“EWW!! YANDAH!!” she just giggles at you and moves to braid your hair.

“its just that…” you whisper. “He reminds me of bird-mom…”

She kisses the top of your head and continues her braid.

“But, he’s a person too…its so weird thinking of aliens as “people”..but..”

She pauses, huffs and ties the end of your braid.

“Buturi, you’re really dumb”

You turn to look at her. You love her dearly but you hope she knows that if she said that to any other teal-blood that she would be dead.

“of course they’re PEOPLE! Teal isn't that high on hemospectrum, you should understand what’s going on!”

“What is it Yandah?”

“That's what the empire does Buturi.. they kill people, alien people, troll people, it doesn't matter, you should be able to see that we’re all just people killing people, for no good reason”

Oh my gog if her commander had just heard that. You quickly clamp your hand around her mouth and eye the door. It doesn't matter how much data she has stored in her cells, they would gut her on the spot! The brazenness! The audacity! Its one thing to think something, only mind-readers can hear that, but you never know when they’re around! She said it! out loud! You wonder if any of the equipment have audio bugs in them.

She giggles and licks your hand.

“Yandah I’m being serious!!”

“So am I Buturi...so am I”


	9. in which a human tells a tragic backstory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> gets a little bit sad as we hear more about our resident human and Buturi doesn't know how to deal with this.

Its becoming a routine, feed the human, watch him with the grubs. You desperately try not to think about what Yandah said. It doesn't matter how much like a troll he looks, he just isn't a person. He can’t be. What ever he’s doing to seem like a person, he’s faking it.

You tell yourself this every day, but every day it seems less and less true. This is dangerous. You know its dangerous. You can’t be thinking these thoughts. He can’t be making you think these thoughts. Other people can see your thoughts, you’re sure of it. He’ll get you killed if he keeps making you think these thoughts.

You’ve thought about killing him to make the thoughts stop, but you don’t think that it will stop the thoughts.

The grubs purr and wind around his legs, he’s taken all of them in. He’s never made them fight for dominance or compete for his attention, he gives his attention equally and every single grub from rust to violet are peaceful with each other. You had no idea that your species was capable of such...cohabitation, such peaceful interaction.

Its only been six days.

He sits in a corner of the cell talking to the grubs, telling them about everything, anything. Rust grub is chewing on his thumb as he talks.

“Hehe, you sure do like chewing Ruby. Amy would like you, she’s at that age where she’s started teething and so she chews on everything too”

Amy?

“I was so scared when I first got her, I was 24, fresh out of college, and BAM! A baby happened.”

His eyes seem glassed over as he slowly pets the grub’s head, smiling slightly.

“Me and Marissa were so afraid, we didn't know what to do, but we wanted her…”

His smile gets bigger.

“We read all the books, we went to all the classes, we did everything right…”

“I loved Marissa so much but when Amy came…”

He picks up the grub and looks her right in the eyes

“When a baby comes you look at each other and realize that the love you share means NOTHING in comparison to what you would do for your child...for our child…”

He sets the grub back down.

“You just sort of look at each other and realize that if there was ever a choice between them and the baby...that you would always save the baby...always..”

You’re dumbfounded. You had no idea that the lususing instinct was so strong. You wonder if this is how bird-mom felt about you. She must have, she really must have...

“We did have to choose…”

He picks up two more grubs and holds them close. They purr soothingly and roll up into balls.

“When Amy came into the world I wanted to protect her from everything, I sanitized every inch of our house, I installed child-proof plugs on all the electrical sockets but you know what?”

He looks up at the ceiling, squares his jaw and waves his hands in a sky-ward motion and holds his middle fingers aloft.

“Aliens fucking attacked! Fucking aliens! HOW THE HELL was I supposed to see that one coming!!??”

The grubs laying on his legs look worriedly up at his apparent fury. Several hide their faces and others give apologetic peeps, trying to apologize for whatever it was they had apparently done.

He turns to the grubs and his expression softens.

“Its ok little guys, I wasn't talking about you..”

he gathers them all onto his lap. They purr and nuzzle into his chest. you recognize the rattly purr of a grub with their lusus and you can’t stop seeing bird-mom.

“You guys haven’t done a single bad thing in your life, I should know, I was there for all of it so far”

He smiles and kisses one on the head. The purring intensifies and others chitter, asking for the same attention.

“I knew I was dead the second I came in here, we aren't stupid, we know what the older ones of your kind do to us”

The jade grub licks his hand and nuzzles into his palm. 

“But I know Amy is safe, because I made sure she was safe before I left. They’ll turn this planet on its head before they find her…”

“And I got to meet you guys...I just hope you’ll be ok without me when its happens...I don’t know where your parents are but I consider myself your dad…”

“I just wish you could meet Amy…”

Oh my… Oh my god…

You can’t let this human die...You have to-

You turn around to see Churro stride into the lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> didn't really expect for there to be a plot, it just happened, i have a couple of more chapters ready to go.


	10. in which a clown is creepy and a moirail is badass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok churro gets his creep on here just so you know. Yandah is a badass. also Churro thats NOT how you flirt!
> 
> also heres some quick sketches from me of these characters  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109231060086/some-quick-sketches-for-my-fanfic-in-which

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if churro is going for red or pale here but he's creeping everyone out in the process.

He fixes his indigo stare on you and suddenly he goes from all the way across the room to right at your workstation, way too close for comfort. Leaning into your space, he studies your face carefully. Indigo eyes flickering up and down and then staring straight into your own. He’s nearly two feet taller than you and you can smell the layers and layers of blood on his clothes.

faster than your brain can process, he whips one needle-sharp claw out. It hovers in front of your left pupil only millimeters away, you flinch despite yourself and your breath stutters.

Churro chuckles low and deep and the claw is lowered to where he wipes a single teal tear from your cheek. You didn’t even realize that you were crying before.

“Now what has your pretty lil’ teal eyes a tearing sweet?”

Sweet? He’s looking at you so closely, you force yourself to look straight back at him as you lie.

“I’m worried about Yandah sir…” worrying about a moirail is normal. Worrying about aliens isn't.

He tenses at first, but then he relaxes. He rakes his claws across your scalp in what you suppose is supposed to be a calming, petting motion. Really it just freaks you out more, but you see what he’s trying to do.

“Yandah will be fiiine, as long as she stays in liiiine…”

He chuckles. Apparently he thinks rhyming is hilarious.

“But you know your place dear…. that’s neeever a problem with you….”

He places his hand behind your neck and roughly tugs your face to meet his neck. Your face is crushed against his blood-smelling hair and he starts to slowly rock back and forth.

“Suuuch a sweet little thing. Such a riiipe little berry” he whispers this into your ear and he starts to purr.

One of his hands is raised into the air and he snaps his fingers to get the attention of your co-workers. He points to the door and they obediently file out.

You watch them leave with a certain resignation, though for what yet, you’re not sure.

He chuckles again and starts to lean into you more pressing you into your desk-

Just then Yandah walks right in, not seeming to notice the giant indigo maniac in the room.

“Heeeeey Buturi!” She smiles and greets you. Is she actually blind?! Run now while you still can! You plead with your eyes for her to save herself but she keeps smiling and looking at you.

Churro growls and snarls viciously.

Yandah’s hands are behind her back as she walks right up to you, still ignoring Churro.

“GET OUT!!” He growls and from your position you can feel the growls in his chest like tremors.

Yandah smiles innocently and faces Churro, from your position you can see her quickly yank out her bio to mechanical converter from her wrist port behind her back.

She looks at him and gives a pout.

“buuut I need my converter fixed seeeeeee?” she holds out her arm for Churro to inspect

“GET IT DONE LATER, SHE’S BUSY”

Most sane trolls would know to run, but Yandah doesn't even flinch. She just smiles as if Churro isn’t a hulking indigo murder clown and she isn't a very small low-blood.

“But I need it done noooow, they need the human missile codes for a mission tonight, you wouldn't want to interfere with major missions would you?”

Churro stares down at her the way someone would look at shit on their shoes.

“If your guts weren’t filled with data I would spread them all over this base”

Yandah just keeps smiling, and without looking away from Churro says-

“Buturi, you can fix this right?”

You nod and Churro leans away from you. But before he leaves he puts a claw on your lips and says-

“I got two little gifts for you sweet, found them this morning and thought they would make your little experiment more interesting..”

He smiles at you, and glares at Yandah before he finally leaves. You wait until you can’t hear his footsteps anymore.

You let out the breath you were holding and Yandah rushes to your side.

You’re breathing shakily but you feel determined too. You’ve never felt so close to death and it’s given you a little perspective.

“what is it Buturi?” Yandah asks you “What's wrong?”

You lean into her and whisper-

“We’re getting that human out of here”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please comment!


	11. in which a murder clown tries his goddamn best to be pitiable and gifts are presented

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Churro is actually an idiot. He's a creepy idiot, but he's still a fucking idiot. I'm guessing that in the pity quadrants subjuggulators have quite a bit of difficulty because really. It has to be really hard to get someone to pity that. Churro is trying his goddamn best tho!

The compound you’re housed in is only a way station for combat squads. Squads come to get ration packs, drop off alien artifacts and intel, get mission instructions and leave. There are very few permanent trolls living here, its mostly just the scienterrorists and whatever sea-dweller is handing out orders that week. There are many trolls coming in and out, but you start to time the comings and goings of the different squads and find a pattern. There's a brief window of time when a low-blood squad leaves with rations and a subjugglator team comes in for a progress report and a list of humans that need killing.

If you can hurry, maybe you can get the terran across the field and into the woods across from the base. Its not guaranteed, but if its done quickly and not a lot of fuss is made, he’ll at least have a fighting chance.

You can open his cell, kick his ass out and everyone will be happy right?

...Who are you kidding, this is a shitty plan.

You wonder how you’re going to explain how he got out?

The human is currently balancing a grub on each foot, two on his shoulders and one on his head, he’s giving them all turns riding on him as he stomps from one end of the cell to the other, the grubs are all purring and chittering delightedly.

As you’re musing whether or not you could get Churro to lend you a couple of human body parts to fake the human’s death, Churro (of course) chooses that moment to come into the lab.

That's what happens when you think of giant murder clowns, they appear.

He sits on the edge of your workstation, his shoulders are rounded and he feigns interest in the monitor but really you suspect that its a ploy you get his face close to yours.

“So whatchaa dooin?” it was said in an almost purr and that might have been adorable if he wasn't gigantic and covered in blood. It’s really hard to be properly pitiable when you’re nine feet plus horns of pure murder.

“observing my test subject.”

He turns to the monitor again but this time it seems he registers what's going on.

“That’s goddamn disgusting, he really lets grubs walk all over him like that?”

You've stopped seeing it as disgusting a while ago but you don’t voice that. You only nod and pretend to write down important numbers.

“You know humans grow their young in their guts? Make milk too. Gross little things need a be cleansed, sweet, cleansed right off this planet, no excuse for the blasphemies of them living”

“perhaps they can be found useful as lusii..” You can’t believe that you just spoke back to him, are you insane?

For one brief moment he looks at you like he might take your head from your spinal column, but the look fades and he smiles toothily at you. He gently takes your chin between two claws and you can smell blood on his breath.

‘Maybe sweet, maybe, but I won’t trust no troll from a humie’s nest, proper lusii don’t know how to spread liiiies, a humie would up open they blunt-toothed lil’ mouths and fill little heads with humie thoughts”

He wiggles his claws in front of your fore-head to assumingly illustrate humie thoughts invading your mind. You know by the way he said it that he thinks this idea should frighten you but...really it just sounds nice. Think of a whole generation of trolls who live as gently as the grubs in the holding cell.

You pretend to be frightened anyways.

He giggles and it occurs to you that he really DOES think that he’s being adorable, instead of fifty shades of creepy while leaving dried blood stains all over your workstation.

“anyways sweet, I brought the presents I told you about..” He snaps his fingers and two cobalts enter the room with large bags draped across their shoulders (You wonder how long they had to wait uncomfortably by the door while their commander tried to pity flirt). He points at the floor in front of you and the long bags are dropped at your feet for you to inspect.

Oh god oh god. What is it? Is it poisonous? Will it explode?

You turn to Churro but he only giggles, hides a smile with one set of claws and motions for you to open the bag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments are my lifeblood. More! more comments! I really didn't expect people to like this story as much as you guys do :3


	12. in which whoever taught Churro how to flirt needs to die and presents are revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I decided not to be mean and show you guys whats in the bag :3
> 
> Just imagine Churro and his even dumber moirail in a pile together while he gives Churro dating advice. 
> 
> Dude you should like...get her something interesting...scienterrorists dig interesting shit. also pinch her ass, chicks love that shit.

You pull the drawstring and a pink human is revealed, the other bag contains the same. You check quickly to see if they’re still breathing.

“They still alive! Or at least, last I checked, humies a so easy to kill, but I know that a dead humie isn’t no good for the righteous acts of science you perform….do you like them sweet?”

He looks at you expectantly, like a wiggler asking their lusus for a cookie and WOW is he trying his ABSOLUTE BEST to be pitiable.

When you don’t answer right away he tears at his hair with his claws and growls to himself.

“I knew it! I knew it! I know you wanted a female for your righteous science to test them mad lactations they got going on, but they so hard to find sweet! these are good humans! LOOK!”

He picks up the lighter skinned one by the scruff of his neck and shoves it in your face.

“This one has DOTS on its face! RED HAIR! It’s interesting right? Scienterrorists LIKE INTERESTING!”

He lets the unconscious human fall to the floor with a loud “thump” and he picks up the darker-skinned terran. Wiggling the other unconscious human back and forth like a meat puppet he begins to talk about the merits of this one.

“Look his skin is darker! like a NUT! his hair is GREY and his face is WRINKLY! Thats INTERESTING! You should LIKE THAT!”

He lets the other unconscious human slump to the floor. His shoulders slump and he sighs.

“well if you don’t like em’ I’ll take em back, maybe I’ll find a female for ya sweet, I’ll really try..” he pouts.

You know exactly what would happen to them if he took them back.

“no no no, really they’re lovely…”

His ears perk up and he looks at you hopefully.

“I was just wanting to test human’s territoriality with other members of their kind!”

He seems confused.

“well you know how lusii fight when they want the same grub? Well that human has chosen all of the grubs! There's no other grubs for these two to choose!”

He perks up and seems excited.

“You really think they’ll try and kill each other??!! That would be greeaat!! which one do ya think will win?? can I have the bodies later??” he grins like an excited wiggler and starts a rattly purr in anticipation.

“Sure thing sir!” you grin widely (Though it may also come out as a grimace) and pretend to be excited as well. You highly doubt that the humans will do that, from what has been observed on the battlefield they’re very kind with each other.  
but whatever makes Churro happy and LEAVE though, is worth it.

Oh dear god what are you going to do?

A sleeping gas is introduced to the cell and once your original human is properly drugged you have the cobalts drag the new humans into the cell.

Churro eyes the sleeping grubs.

“Think I could have the grubs when you’re done? I’d like to fry em’, nothin better than a grub fricassee, I’ll even share if you’d like.” he purrs at you.

You nod, smile sweetly and pretend to agree. Wow, sharing food? Since when have you two progressed that far in this IMAGINARY matespritship he thinks has with you? Also the whole “eating grubs thing” has got more and more unappealing to you as this whole thing went down, but you sure as hell aren't going to tell him that.

What are you going to do??

Before Churro FINALLY leaves your lab, he pinches your ass, calls you “Booty-ri” and blows a kiss from the doorway. A nine-foot subjuggulator just fucking BLEW YOU A KISS.

His cobalt underlings seem ready to spontaneously combust with the sheer ridiculousness he’s displaying and you really don’t blame them. However, as uncomfortable with his behavior as they are, they know that if they say anything their heads will be the next “presents”.

Whoever taught this troll how to flirt needs to die. Because SOMEONE had to have given him the advice to go from watching you at the back of the room to being as FREAKING RIDICULOUS as he’s being now. You've reevaluated your beliefs recently about the killings of people, both troll and human, but you absolutely cling to the FACT that whoever this troll is, NEEDS TO DIE.

Ok so this complicates your plan. Three humans. THREE. 

As you bemoan this terrible development that makes your life more difficult, your human starts to stir in the cell.


	13. in which there is a tender reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hooray more humans! sorry to make things more complicated but they're needed i swear!!
> 
> here's a link for a sketch of the grubs  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109397081696/grubs-for-in-which-humanity-is-considered-lusii
> 
> here's a link for sketches of some of the scenes in these two chapters  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109396388781/sketches-of-chapters-13-and-14-of-my-fanfic-in
> 
> here's a link for a drawing of Churro in a wedding dress  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109396606201/no-really-i-swear-i-take-my-own-antagonist 
> 
> Also Keani is native Polynesian, Henry is a ginger and Michael is still michael.

The violet grub has been licking your human’s ear in an effort to wake him up and she lets out a pleased peep as he groans and sits up.

“WOW. YEAH. OK. nice one there aliens! drug me why don’t cha? Alien assholes that take forever to kill people, bet they took my kidney or something fucked up like tha-”

He notices the other two humans that now occupy his cell and springs to his feet. He checks for a pulse and signs of respiration. When he discovers that they are indeed still alive he clutches the red-haired human to his chest.

“HENRY!!!”

“Henry” just lolls his head back, obviously still unconscious. Your human then goes to the grey-haired human.

“KEANI! HEY! KEANI”

Nothing.

The human then goes back to the red-haired one, he loosely straddles the red-hair’s chest, lifts his upper body by the collar of his shirt and slaps him hard across the cheek.

“HENRY”

Nothing.

“CAPTAIN!” (slap)

“O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN” (slap)

“FRECKLE FACE” (slap)

“WAKE!” (slap)

“THE!” (slap)

“FUCK!” (slap)

“UP!” (slap)

The red haired human finally wakes up with a gasp and a jolt and promptly punches your human straight in the face.

“FUCK OFF MICHAEL!!!!”

You can’t help but giggle at the recent development, you've been wanting to do that for a while now.

Is there a name for the feeling of wanting to punch someone in the face, but also make sure they don’t actually get hurt, protect them, but most of all find them extremely endearing?

Because you feel that feeling. Whatever the fuck it is.

“Michael” apparently his name is, falls flat on his ass with a grin and pops back up to hug “Henry”.

“HOORAY YOU’RE ALIVE!!! OH GOD I MISSED YOU! IT’S KINDA AWFUL TO LIKE HAVING YOU HERE SINCE THIS IS AN ALIEN PRISON BUT-”

Henry seems to regain himself a little as Michael rambles like an idiot. He looks at Michael with awe.

“...Mikey you’re alive?....”

Your human giggles and nods.

“Shit Mikey we looked everywhere for you...we thought you were dead…We really thought you were dead….”

The tender moment between moirails is broken as the grey-haired human begins to stir.

“...fuck Mikey...quiet ya ahss down bruddah….” he speaks in a very low voice.

Michael then goes to the grey human and hugs him as well. Squealing like an idiot all the while.

“Mikey??” The grey human’s eyes widen “IT’S REALLY YOU BRUDDAH!!”

Michael seems about at the point of tears and the older man claps his hands around Michael’s shoulders.

“Look at cha! We thought cha were dead Mikey! But look at cha! Breathing right in front of me!...”

The older human clutches a hand to his heart and looks Michael straight in the eyes.

“In these dark times, your life put hope into my heart Mikey…Its a miracle! a light in tha darkness...”

The red haired human “Henry” had been watching this tender, touching and truly heartfelt moment blandly, much the way someone would consider a rock or a head of cabbage. He turns his head slightly and spots the grubs.

His look of mild boredom quickly turns to shock and panic.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE???!!!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please please comment I love it when you guys comment and it lets me know if you're enjoying the story :3


	14. In which the grub king is crowned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! this is mostly just introducing the new humans to the grubs and character development of the humans. on the previous chapter summary i included some links to where i drew them all. enjoy!!

The Henry human keeps shrieking as Michael and Keani sit and calmly watch him freak the fuck out.

The copper grub goes to investigate Keani’s shoe. Keani leans down to inspect the grub as it bites the rubber on the bottom of the shoe.

“Hello deh little one...What might you be?..” he gently extends a finger to the grub. The grub sniffs and licks his finger.

“ewww…” Henry looks repulsed “Don’t let it just touch you like that…it might have a disease, or it might bite you or-.”

Michael dismisses Henry’s fear with a wave of his hand.

“pffft. Nah. I’ve been with these alien babies for a while now and I never got sick.” 

He then picks up the copper grub and places it in his lap. The other grubs who had been observing the newcomers from the other side of the cell, take that as their cue to scuttle over and climb into Michael’s lap.

Henry seems more grossed out than ever.

“What are those things and why are they on your lap?!”

“Alien babies.”

“....what.”

“Alien babies.”

“And you’re actually ok with that??!!”

“yup.”

Keani contemplates the grubs.

“May I hold one bruddah?”

Michael smiles, picks up the olive grub and holds it out to the elder human.

 

He’s just going to hand the grub over? You knew that humans are kinder than trolls and that these humans obviously have history together but that seems a little too trusting to you.

“Her name is Maya” Michael informs him. Why does he seem so proud all of a sudden? He smiles and you think he might actually be....showing the grubs off? Do humans do that?

Keani nods and gently takes the grub from his hand.

The grub looks back and chirrs worriedly at Michael.

“Don’t worry Maya, I know him, he’s nice..” he assures the tiny grub.

The grub turns back to the elder human and peeps at him. The human nods sagely.

“Hello to you as well.” the human greets the grub and loosely holds her.

The grub curls herself into a ball in his hands, but as soon as it’s apparent to the grub that the human means no harm, she unfurls and starts to explore the new human. she sniffs him, licks his hands, explores his hands, his right sleeve, and his shoulder before settling in on his head.

Having a grub on Michael’s head just looked stupid but this man is so at peace, so wise looking as he leans his head back. It’s like the grub is a crown.

This man is now the grub king.

Henry though, of course, has to ruin the coronation of the grub king.

“They’re aliens! just like the ones we’ve been fighting!! Shouldn’t we kill them or something?? That way they won’t grow up to be MORE alien assholes!!”

Michael looks absolutely offended, but before he can respond the grub king serenely raises his hand to silence him.

“Bruddah, the young ones ain’t doin no harm, they ain’t got the hatred in em that we see on the battlefield, they live without blame.”

The grub king then gently picks up the yellow grub and raises her in both hands like a holy offering.

“Life is a sacred thing, all that is imbued with life is sacred. All things are born PURE of the soul, its only the course of one’s life, and the choices made within it that can twist the pure soul.”

You’ve just received the most profound piece of knowledge you’ve ever heard from a human with a grub on its head.

The red-head is not impressed.

“wow. ok there grub-lord-”

Show respect human! That’s grub KING to you!

“-Aren’t you at least a little worried that they will grow up to be just as vicious and FUCKING AWFULl as their parents?’

“Stop being a jackass Henry.” grub king solemnly decrees.

“YEAH!” Michael agrees smugly.

“They’ve been with Michael dis whole time, you should be worried about dem turning out like HIM.”

“YEA- heeeeey” Michael does his best to seem as offended as possible and starts to pout.

Michael then picks up the rust grub and brandishes her to Henry. Henry recoils and Michael giggles.

“Henry look at that wittle face!! You can’t kill her!! she’s too cute!!”

The grub seemingly sensing the meaning behind her human’s words, looks up at Henry, peeps and starts to purr sweetly.

Henry scowls and points a finger at the grub.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing alien!! You’re cuteness won’t work on me! I am a seasoned warrior! I have fought hard and long on the battlefield against your kind and if you think being cute will save you from CERTAIN DEATH you are-”

The rust grub peeps, licks the finger that was extended to her in warning and keeps purring at him.

His shoulders that had been squared in fury immediately slump in defeat and he sheepishly avoids looking at the grub. He sighs deeply.

“.....ok fine you win, we won’t kill the grubs…”

As amusing as all of this is, since Churro is expecting for the humans to kill each other, that means that eventually he’ll check up on them for the bodies. If he sees them acting all nice with one another, you don’t think he’ll be happy. 

You’ll need...You’ll need….

You’ll need their help.

You’ll need the human’s help if you want this to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please please comment!!


	15. in which humans are contacted and chickens don't write in russian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you guys get one long (for my standards) chapter today. I've been cutting my writing chunks in half because it seemed like the best places for dramatic chapter breaks? I don't know, this whole thing is one giant word doc on my computer. But then they were so small chapters, so i gave them out two at a time, and I just don't know.
> 
> first contact! hooray! Get ready for the jail break folks!

You quickly consult an alternian-terran language reference guide and find a scrap of paper. Terran letters are strange and rounded but you try and copy the symbols as best as you could. “English” certainly isn't your language of choice and you don’t know if the human can forgive you for his imprisonment, or any of your kind for that matter, but here it goes. The first contact between yourself and your human.

You slowly start to scratch out what might be the most important correspondence of your life.

Michael is huddled close to Keani as the grubs lay and purr in their laps. The red haired human is scanning the cell walls and trying to find a way to escape.

“Keani…” Michael seems hesitant to ask whatever it is. “Do you think Amy is…”

Keani’s brows furrow and he turns to address Michael.

“You know we don have dat info Mikey...It is better for field teams to not know wheh the other survivors are in case the aliens pull a mind reader out on us…But your sista and the other scavengers know what they doin...they be safe..”

He left Amy with other humans? All of a sudden it becomes clear to you. Why Michael let Keani hold the grubs, why he convinced Henry to like the grubs. He’s building a lususing web...humans must build large social webs of lusii interacting with one another! Complex social groups! Large gatherings of lusii caring for their own and each other’s young! What an unprecedented finding! If you weren’t planning high treason at the moment, this would need to be thoroughly investigated!!

“yeah awesome” the red head counters from where he has been trying to pry loose tiles off from around the locking mechanism of the door. “Just continue with your FEELS PARTY over there while we’re locked in an alien prison with no way out.”

You’ve discarded one or two notes to your human, you’re not nervous about talking to him….that would be silly. You finally have a suitable note that you desperately hope makes sense. 

You slide it into the feeder door. And you hear the mechanisms whirr.

All three humans look as the feeder door opens.

Both Michael and Henry go for the note at the same time, Michael gets there first and accidentally elbows Henry in the eye in his haste. He starts to read your note. You're so nervous, its the first contact between you and your human! You feel like an ambassador. Intergalactic communication and cooperation between species! Its a landmark! A historic occasion! a-

“What the fuck is this?” he tilts his head to the right, to the left and squints his eyes. “It looks like a chicken tried to write in russian”

Well fuck you Michael! This is the first time you've ever written in terran! So maybe your terran language skills aren't perfect, but it should be serviceable! You even wrote it in the terran dialect of this particular region!!

Henry grabs the note from Michael. “Let me see that idiot.”

Both men hunch around the note and try to decipher its meaning.

“Is it a code?” “Is it a cipher?” “Is it alien language?” “I think those might be numbers…”

The Grub king walks to where the two men are huddled, takes one look at the note over their shoulders and smacks both of them upside their heads.

“It’s upside down ya skinny little idiots.”

The note is righted and Michael recites your message.

“WANt. HeLP. yU” he looks into the camera. “You want to help us?”

“Who are you even talking to??” Henry demands.

“There's an alien watching us with this” he explains and points to the camera.

“WHAT?!!” for a brief moment the camera is filled with a large brown eye surrounded by freckled skin before it recedes and suddenly Henry is at the other end of the cell pacing back and forth and swearing under his breath.

“How do you know they’re watching us?” Henry demands.

“They gave me a can-opener” Michael explains to Henry.

“YEAH OK SURE” Henry throws up his hands in exasperation. “More important question, how can we TRUST this alien?”

Michael seems unsure, he winces, shrugs his shoulders and says- “It was a very nice can-opener??”

You can already tell that the freckled human is going to start screaming because of how red his face is all of a sudden.

“WELL WHOOP-DE-FUCKING-DO!!! A CAN-OPENER!! CALL IN THE POLITICIANS FOLKS THE WAR HAS ENDED, SOME ALIEN HAS GIVEN THIS DOUCHE A CAN-OPENER!!”

What a dickbag. You scrawl another note.

“ShUT Ur DoT FaCE.”

Michael giggles and shows the note to Henry. “Yeah! shut yer dot face, Henry!” he agrees smugly. “Even aliens can’t stand you dude.”

You scratch out another note and place it in the feeder. 

“HaVE Yu ChoiCe?”

Michael shows the note to the other two humans in the cell and he nods to the camera.

“good point there alien bud…”

Henry starts to swear louder “Its a trick!! why would any of the aliens want to help us??”

“That actually is a good question…” Michael seems thoughtful and he turns to address the camera “Why DO you want to help us?

Why do you want to help him. You could tell him that his bond with the grubs reminds you of the bond you had with your bird mom. You could tell him that you've realized that he’s a person. You could tell him that you’re sick of allowing terrible things to happen because you’re afraid of the empire. You could tell him how attached to him you've become….but you write down the most simple, important and heartfelt reason that you have.

“No wANt Yu diE.”

Michael reads the note and solemnly nods to the camera. “...ok.” Keani places his hand on Michael’s shoulder, he looks in the camera and nods as well. 

Henry angrily points to Keani “NOT YOU TOO OLD MAN!! GOD DAMN IT KEANI YOU FUCKING HIPPIE YOU'VE FINALLY GONE SENILE!!!”

Keani the Grub King slowly walks to Henry. He towers over the red-head and grabs his shirt collar. Using one hand he lifts Henry off the ground to look him in the eyes.

“Do not think that I am too peaceful…” He raises Henry higher “...or too old” He leans in closer to Henry’s face and his voice becomes impossibly lower “That I couldn't kick ya skinny little ass ya white boy.”

He drops Henry on the floor and continues “We in a Alien prison bruddah, ders hardly a way we DON die, what have we to lose when we have already lost evrathing?”

Henry looks up at the camera and sighs. “So what do you have in mind alien?”

You load another note into the feeder.

“I hAve PLaN”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely adore answering your comments! i'm also not very sure how many people are reading this so if you read it and enjoy it please leave a comment. Kinda like a' raise hands' kinda thing so I can take attendance. Plus this is my first time writing on the internets so some respectful criticism would be nice. 
> 
> I'm working on a "Grub king is Empress of the troll empire" doodle that was suggested at the last chapter. Grub king will kick all of their asses :3


	16. In which a yellow-blood is found to have arsonistic tendencies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I swear this was just supposed to be a cute story about grubs. I swear. How the hell did it become a plot?
> 
> also heres a doodle of grub king becoming emperess for ZoeRussle and otaku_lady89 who suggested it on chapter 14  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109581651741/the-grub-king-becomes-the-empress-for-zoerussle

Troll horns are sensory organs that sense magnetic fields which enables trolls to sense things without seeing them. A magnet can disrupt the sensory field of a troll, human rebels have already been using magnets in guerrilla warfare after they observed trolls become dizzy in their presence. If you want to smuggle the humans out of the compound and into the woods, the first thing you’ll need to do is circumvent the horn-sense. An electromagnet can be made by wrapping copper wire around an iron rod and applying a current from a battery pack, you make one for each human to mask them from horn-sense.

One of your olive-blooded co-workers asks you what you’re doing. You tell them to fuck off.

Heehoo! Being sassy it fun! No wonder why Yandah is always so sassy!

You’ve explained your plan to Yandah (you’re pretty sure people thought you two were having a pale session in the broom closet) and she’s agreed to help you with a diversion.

You need a way to get your co-workers out of the building. You may may be the highest on the hemospectrum among the scienterrorists of this particular lab, but you don’t think you could take them all out at once. Also even though you may not particularly like your co-workers, you don’t really want them to die either. You need a way to get them to leave voluntarily. 

Yandah said she’ll “take care of it” and left giggling.

You hope you stressed the “I don’t want anyone to die” part to her enough.

You’ll also need to get rid of Churro, but you have an idea for that…if you really really have to...

You load another note into the feeder.

“ReAdY?”

Michael looks into the camera and nods.  
You pass all three electromagnets through the feeder along with a backpack. Michael loads the grubs into the backpack and you watch the humans clip the electromagnets onto their belts.

Yandah said her diversion should start about now, you wonder what’s taking her-

Just then the lights to the lab suddenly cut out. The fire alarm goes starts to off and smoke can be seen entering through the cracks in the lab doors.

Yandah bursts into the lab and is followed by a large gust of smoke, behind her you can see the red flashing of the alarms intermittently illuminating the darkness. 

“OH MY GOD” She screams and melodramatically clutches both sides of her face in mock-terror “ITS THE GENERATOR, ITS ON FIRE, RUN!! THIS PLACE IS GOING TO BLOW!!!”

Your co-workers run screaming and you’re left at your station dumbfounded.

“REALLY YANDAH?? YOU SET THE FUCKING GENERATOR ON FIRE ARE YOU INSANE????” Your moirail is going to kill us all, what the actual hell Yandah?

Yandah though, Isn't nearly as frightened as you think she should be. “WHAT THE FUCK YANDAH WHY ARE YOU SMILING? WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE.”

Yandah only smiles more and giggles “No idiot I set a fire in the computer room, it was very gratifying, do you know how often I’m hooked to that computer? fucking computer was just begging to be burned, plus it’ll look like an electrical accident, anyways! lets see those humies!"

You’re very glad that Yandah didn’t set the generator on fire but you’re worried about her new-found arsonistic tendencies.

With you co-workers out of the lab you can open Michael’s cell door. You turn on the translator, making sure you've set it to translate from both terran-to-troll and troll-to terran. You clip it to your belt, and unlock the cell.

The cell door creaks open and you come face-to-face with your human. 

You’re a small troll at just under seven feet tall and Yandah is an extremely small troll at just six feet tall. Michael is tall human for a human at just over six feet tall, the Grub King is just barely shorter than Michael and the red-headed human is a good six inches shorter than both of them.

There's just this moment when you look at Michael, smile shyly and give a little wave. What the hell are you supposed to even say to him? Michael smiles back at you and it feels like a stab to the blood-pusher in the best way possible. He opens his mouth to start to say something and-

Yandah grabs Henry by the sides of his face and pushes his cheeks together.

“Look Buturi this one has dots on his face!! DOTS!!” Henry looks extremely uncomfortable.

When the translator on your belt translates Yandah’s words into Terran Henry groans while the other two laugh.

Yandah tries to wipe away the freckles on Henry’s cheeks and Henry tries to bat her hands away. This of course leads to an inter-species slap fight.

This is stupid. And wasting time.

You turn to Michael. He is currently giggling at what has to be the stupidest inter-species introduction yet to date, and you really have to stop finding everything he does as an endearing. Before both of you get distracted again, you direct his attention to the electromagnets.

“Turn this on, it will help to hide you from other trolls.” All three humans turn to their electromagnets and switch them on.

The device works better than you expected. Horn-sense allows one to sense animals or objects within range of their horns, its even possible to sense through walls if they’re thin enough, not like the walls of a cell or anything. When the humans switch on the magnets your horn-sense of them is completely lost, its like they suddenly became ghosts or illusions. Why if you weren't looking right at them, you wouldn't even know that they were there! You have to poke Michael’s chest just to make sure he’s still solid. You look to Yandah and you can see that she’s having the same reaction, wide-eyed she pokes Henry again to make sure he’s hasn't become a ghost.

The humans seem confused.

“We can sense with our horns” You point to your horns to illustrate “But now you’re invisible to that sense.”

Henry’s eyes widen “Thats how they always seemed to know where we were when we tried to sneak attack.”

Staying too close to the humans though make you dizzy, you step back with a hand to your horns. The grubs in Michael’s backpack are all peeping slowly and woozily before they stop peeping all together, prolonged exposure to the magnets will probably make them very disoriented.

Disoriented is better than dead.

“Come on” you motion to the door “Lets go”

Just then you hear footsteps coming down the hallway towards the lab.

You had just enough time to hide the humans and Yandah behind a co-workers desk, tucking Yandah close to a human and letting their electromagnets shield her presence. You just barely manage to close the door of the cell before Churro opens the door to the lab..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment on me like one of your french girls.
> 
> Seriously though. I fucking love comments. I just roll around in your comments. I bask in your comments. I put your comments in between two pieces of bread and i eat up your comments. I am a comment addict.


	17. In which major shit goes down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok guys this is a long chapter, I was gonna cut it in half but there was no real good way to do that, so here you go!  
>  Major major MAJOR shit goes down. This is the chapter before the climax and I might wait a day before posting the climax, just to make sure that its as fucking awesome as it should be and because that will be another long chapter.
> 
> Here's a pic of the group before the climax  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109680092786/for-in-which-humanity-is-considered-as-lusii-by-a
> 
> SwimmingFerret drew Buturi!! I'm So happy!!! Check out her blog!  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109578445766/swimmingferret-ladysyk0s-fantroll-buturi
> 
> also this is Buturi's ancestral weapon  
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardiche
> 
> And Yandah's  
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_%28weapon%29

Churro’s imposing nine-foot figure is silhouetted in the doorway, casting a long shadow across the room, illuminated only by the red glow of the fire alarm. The cruel angles of his face and the many many scars across his skin are all highlighted in the weak red light of the alarm. When he closes the door of the lab behind him, the red light from the hallway is gone.

In the darkness of the lab the yellow of his eyes glow around indigo pupils. The subjugglator face-paint smiles hollowly in the darkness. You can see the wet shimmer of needle-sharp teeth. Both the face-paint and the teeth contort together into a wide toothy smile.

He chuckles at you. “sweet, ya know there's a fire right? Trolls think its a generator fire, but if any of em’ woulda checked... they woulda seen the smoke come from the computer room” He chuckles again. “Don’t worry sweet little berry…” He smirks and his voice drops lower, almost to a growl “I’ll protect you…”

You force yourself to smile at him and hope that the humans are hidden well-enough. He strides across the room to you, he towers over you, looking down at you and grinning.

“I was just getting some papers…” You manage to stammer out. You desperately search for an excuse. You have an idea, you don’t like it, but its an idea. “There was a development in the experiment...”

Churro’s ears perk up. Lets hope this works.

You smile sweetly up at him and he takes your chin between claws. He giggles and swipes a thumb over your lips. 

“I take it they killed each other?” He asks. You smile coyly.

“Well one is still alive…” You sigh dramatically and look up at him through your lashes “think you could take care of it for me?” You ask as sweetly as possible.

He smiles so wide that you swear you can see every single one of his razor sharp teeth. He touches a claw to your nose.

“I distinctly remember promising you a grub fricassee when this was all done as well, sweet.” He licks his lips with a long spiney tongue. You shiver disgusted, and he misinterprets it as a sign of arousal. “And then…” He wraps an arm around your hips “...we can get back to US..” he leans in for a kiss.

You let him.

This is the worst moment of your life.

When Churro finally lets up he smiles at you and turns to the cell. He opens the door..

You kick him.

You kick him hard.

In his surprise he is taken off balance and he stumbles into the cell, you try and close the door on him but one of his enormous, clawed and scarred hands is blocking the path of the door. You can hear his claws scrape into the metal, making long grooves in the steel and leaving metal shavings on the floor.

Churro is three castes above you and he is an active combatant while you’re just a scienterrorist, you know you can’t match his strength. Yandah and the humans spring up from their hiding place and help you. Having the human’s electromagnets so close to you is making you dizzy but you can’t let up. You can hear Churro’s enraged roaring, so loud that its almost deafening. It seems that one enraged indigo will be more than enough of a match for a pair of dizzy yellow-blood and teal-blood non-combatants and three humans but with one group push you all manage somehow to close the door and engage the locking mechanism.

You all slide to the floor panting to the sound of Churro’s now muffled enraged roaring.

Yandah raises an eyebrow at you.

“Way to take one for the team.”

You glare at her and rub off any Churro spit that may still be on you.

The Henry human turns to you panting “I thought for sure you were going to betray us…” He nods at you “Thanks for proving me wrong.”

You’re about to respond but then the metal of the door you all were leaning on is very suddenly bent in the muted shape of a fist and you can hear Churro’s roars get louder. You don’t think the door will hold him for long.

You take Michael’s hand and quickly lead the humans out of the lab.

“We need to get our weapons” Michael says hurriedly. You nervously look back to the lab and Churro’s roars can still just barely be heard. You want to get the humans out of here as quickly as possible but you’ll admit that weapons are pretty necessary given the situation.

You quickly lead the humans to the storage area, all human weapons found are taken here to be impounded and studied. There are rows and rows of shelves filled with large boxes and you take the humans to a box you know will have the weapons that were confiscated from them, along with some useful new toys.

Michael finds his holsters and pistols along with a long belt with bombs, each painted with a yellow smiley face. He puts on the holsters and returns the pistols to their rightful places. He wraps the belt around his hips.

Henry apparently was apprehended with a very large machine gun and a strip of metal bullets.

The grub king has a large holster that he straps across his chest, a sawed off shot-gun, and...is that...... Is that a flamethrower? What the hell grub king I thought you were a pacifist?!

You realize that you said that last part out-loud, and the grub king turn to you slowly.

“Ey... cha started it.” he says as he loads a fuel cell into the flamethrower and clicks it into place.

Yandah looks entranced with the flamethrower. “Hey, Buturi, think you can make me one of those?”

Judging by the manic smile on Yandah’s face, you decide that Yandah should never have a flamethrower. Ever.

Surrounded by the very short, but very well-armed humans you feel extremely incompetent. All trolls get an ancestral weapon when they come of age (Yours was a bardiche and Yandah’s was a set of kai) but after being determined to be mentally superior you were put on the track to be a scienterrorist instead of a soldier, you've gotten by with being timid and staying out of trouble, you’re not a fighter. Yandah was immediately sent to the labs to undergo genetic and surgical alterations to become a bio-unit, she doesn't have much combat experience either.

And that really sucks right now because you can hear the sound of metal tearing and enraged roaring coming from the lab.

You hear the loud and sickening sounds of metal warping, claws scratching across steel, and the roar of one very enraged subjuggulator before you hear the cell door finally give way.

“BUUUUUUTUUUUUURIIIIIIIIIIIII YOUUUUU UNGRAAAAAATEFUL BIIIIIIITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Well fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if we had any Buturi/Churro shippers in the audience.
> 
> Here's a pic of the group before the climax  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109680092786/for-in-which-humanity-is-considered-as-lusii-by-a
> 
> SwimmingFerret drew Buturi!! I'm So happy!!! Check out her blog!  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109578445766/swimmingferret-ladysyk0s-fantroll-buturi
> 
> also this is Buturi's ancestral weapon  
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardiche
> 
> And Yandah's  
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_%28weapon%29


	18. we're doing this, we're making this happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> /////IMPORTANT PLEASE READ/////  
> Theres some gore in this chapter so if that squicks or triggers you skip from "you purple bastard" to "You hand him the backpack of grubs" that should get you past the gore.
> 
> Hiya! this has been one heck of a ride, i really didn't think this fic would go this far. 
> 
> SwimmingFerret on tumblr has drawn Churro eating Churros, check her out because she's freaking amazing!  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109765875951/swimmingferret-ladysyk0s-fantroll-churro
> 
> also here's her drawing of Buturi!  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109578445766/swimmingferret-ladysyk0s-fantroll-buturi
> 
> doodles of this chapter  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109779467211/chapter-18-pics

You push the humans and Yandah to hide behind some crates at the end of the room. Yandah leans into Henry, allowing his electromagnet to shield her from Churro’s horn-sense. You lean into Michael and do the same. You quickly take a gun from one of the crates, even though you have no idea how to use it, its better than nothing.

He’s so warm (you had forgotten that he was a mammal). This might have been romantic if you weren't about to be killed by a giant, bloodthirsty murder clown who you had denied the flushed advances of.

You are so fucked.

No matter how well-armed your humans are, he’s a subjuggulator, you’ve seen what they can do. You know that if (or when) he catches the members of your little group it won’t matter how-well armed the humans are. The highblood rage of a subjuggulator allows them to keep fighting after being shot over and over, even losing limbs. You’re the strongest physically of the group and you’re just a TEAL. A TEAL WHO HAS NEVER SEEN A DAY OF BATTLE!

So fucked.

So very very fucked.

The electromagnet on Michael’s belt is making your head spin and you can’t use your horn-sense while this close to the electromagnet, you never realized how much you use one sense until it’s lost, you have to rely on your other senses.

The fire alarm is still going off but you still hear his footsteps, slow, heavy and methodical, he’s taking his time. You can hear him growling, loud and animalistic. You hear the screech of his claws dragging slowly across the wall.

From your position you can see the round windows in the storage room doors. You see the red flashing of the alarms in the hallway and Churro’s shadow outlined in red across the wall.

You finally see him through the windows, the wicked points of his horns, the jarring white of the facepaint in the red light, and for one blissful moment you think that maybe, maybe he will just keep walking by…

He slowly opens the doors, you can hear the fire alarm from the hallway and you note that there’s more smoke than there was before.

He enters the room and closes the doors behind him. The alarms are nearly silenced.

Its quiet.

He isn't growling. He isn't screaming.

He just stands there.

Silent.

His eyes are closed and he turns his head from side to side.

You realize that he’s trying to find you using his horn-sense, his horns are so much longer than yours, of course they must have a longer range.

He lifts his head. Opens his eyes.

“I know you’re in here…” he looks around the room slowly and continues “I don’t know how you’re blocking my horn-sense but the last I sensed of you was from this room….”

He walks further into the space. He pulls a machete from his belt. Red light from the hallway filters through the small windows to reflect off the blade. He raises the blade to a long shelf of artifacts, knocking them off one by one as he continues slowly into the room.

“See I was real mad at you at first, like REAL mad, so mad that I was thinkin’ bout’ tearing off your pretty lil head with my own teeth lil berry...thinkin’ bout’ how your blood would taste…thinkin’ bout’ how your spine would snap...”

He stops as the first shelf ends, growls and breathes through his nose, before you see him visibly collect himself.

“But then I realized..” he continues to knock things off the next shelf as he travels farther into the room and closer to your hiding spot. “Its not your fault….”

What?

“Its those goddamn humies…” he punctuates each of his words with a stab in the air. “Filling your pretty head full of slimy human lies…” he continues his way into the room. “That and your piss-blood moirail…” He sighs loudly. “But I can fix you….”

He scratches his claws along a metal shelf. “I goddamn knew she was motherfucking trouble….we’ll take you into the mind-readers sweet...make you forget aaaallllll about those scrawny pink little aliens...wipe away their liiiiiiies….I can fiiiix youuuuu…”

You and Michael watch Churro slowly advance into the room, Michael readies one of his pistols. Neither of you notice a small yellow grub wiggle her way out of the backpack and dizzily start to scuttle away...

“once theeeeey dead there won’t be no one to corrupt youuuuu….you’ll be PERFECT again….” he says it a hiss.

You need to get out of here.

Across the aisle Yandah motions to a window. With a distraction maybe…

A lone grub totters from the shadows. Churro grins and pounces on the grub. You grab Michael’s arm to keep him from immediately running to her.

“so you said the humans were lusii huh...?” He grins cruelly “Come and get it you stupid mammals…”

He starts to SQUEEZE the grub. The grub squeals and you can hear one of her tiny horns snap.

Michael yanks away from your hand and shoves the backpack of grubs at you, he darts from his hiding place, still shielded from horn-sense. Churro looks up just as Michael uses Churro’s knee as a spring board, jumping into the air. Michael brandishes the small knife you gave him as a can-opener.

“LET GO OF MY DAUGHTER YOU PURPLE BASTARD”

Michael drives the knife straight into Churro’s left eye, as he yanks the purple-bloodied knife from the socket it removes Churro’s eye entirely. The subjuggulator yowls and roars.

Churro lets the grub fall to swipe at Michael’s chest, leaving three long scratches before throwing Michael to the side of the room.

Yandah uses her weak psiionics to catch the grub before it hits the ground.

Now that Michael and the grub are out of range Henry starts to shoot, the bullets don’t do much against the enraged subjuggulator, only littering his grey skin with bloodied purple marks.

Keani gets a hit in on Churro’s shoulder with the shotgun, leaving a blossom of purple as Churro lunges for Henry with his machete. 

Henry blocks the vicious blow with the long barrel of his machine gun but the force of the blow knocks him the the ground, Churro lunges after him and goes to rip out his throat with his fangs, Henry shoves the stock of the machine gun between the jaws of Churro’s maw. Churro’s fangs scrape loudly across the scope of the gun.

While Churro is crouched over Henry you jump in his back and sink your own claws deep into the flesh of his shoulders. Indigo blood rushes around your fingers and you snarl. Churro roars and lets up on his attack on Henry to try and dislodge you, this gives Henry enough space to hit Churro on the side of his face with the stock of the gun and begin shooting again.

Churro rises and slams his back against the wall, you feel pain rush up your spine as the impact nearly cracks your horns, he dislodges you, your claws stained with indigo blood as you slide down the wall.

Churro looms over you growling, but before he can do anything Yandah lunges at him, making three neat slices with her claws across his chest. He catches a hold of her hair and uses it as a handle to throw her across the room next the Michael, you can hear the sickening crunch of one of her arms breaking.

Keani fires up the flamethrower, bursts of flame from the gun makes Churro rear up and cover his face with his fore-arms, roaring.

Michael regains himself and reaches for the injured grub, he tucks her into his shirt pocket and retrieves a bomb from his belt.

Crates are set on fire as Keani continues his attack on Churro, Churro slices at the flamethrower with his claws and severs the fuel cable of the gun. Gasoline spurts from the broken gun and is caught aflame. The room fills with fire.

Michael throws a bomb at the wall, the explosion tears a hole into the outside revealing a long field and the woods beyond it.

You manage to regain yourself and pick up the backpack of grubs.

Keani switches back to the shotgun and leaves another blossom of purple on Churro’s chest.

Michael yells at Churro “TAKE THIS YOU FUCKING MEXICAN DONUT!!” as he throws the bomb.

Churro roars back “I AM NOT A PASTRY!!!” as he dodges the bomb.

The bomb bounces off the wall and hits the ceiling before it explodes, a metal support column creaks before it falls. Churro tries to dodge the falling beam but it catches him in the leg and you can hear his bones crunch as he howls pinned under the column and other debris.

You hand Michael the backpack of grubs and he jumps through the hole, Henry helps Yandah through the hole and Keani follows.

You linger.

Churro roars and tries to move the beam. You look at him.

You take the human gun that you had snatched before, click a bullet into place and lower the gun level with his head.

Churro stops struggling and looks at you with his remaining indigo eye… 

Really you would be doing him a favor...a bullet to the head would be easier than burning to death...a mercy culling…

You've reevaluated your beliefs lately….

You raise the gun instead to a water pipe. You shoot and water sprays across the room.

Churro looks dumbfounded as you throw the gun aside.

The water puts out the fire, hissing as its snuffed out.

Water is running down both your faces and you just look at each other.

The water washes away the facepaint, the blood, the grime and he looks…

He looks like a person.

A stupid, stupid person who believed what the empire said. A stupid person who was made into a living weapon by a ruthless regime. A stupid person who was doing what he thought he should. A stupid person who did exactly what was expected of him.

He looks up at you.

“...please….don’t leave….” he whispers.

You shake your head and you vanish into the night.

You join Yandah to where she’s led the humans to the edge of the woods. Michael is shooshing the tiny yellow grub, she’s broken a horn and a fore-limb but otherwise she seems ok as he wraps a thin strip of cloth around the tiny forelimb to brace it. He wipes tiny yellow tears as she snivels and tucks her back into his pocket. 

You hug Yandah and Henry uses his sweater to make a tourniquet for her arm, she thanks him and you turn to Michael.

He smiles at you, you smile back.

He laughs “You know that can-opener came in pretty handy…”

You snort.

His smile fades and he nods solemnly “so...thank you..”

You know he’s thanking you for so much more than a can-opener and you can’t help but grin like an idiot.

“...you’re welcome…”

He’s covered in blood and smoke and you’re sopping wet but you kiss him anyways.

Yandah giggles, Henry looks about to blurt out some rude comment but Keani serenely kicks him in the shin.

You separate, looking into each other’s eyes to the sound of Henry’s swearing and the backdrop of a still partially burning military facility.

You decide that its romantic anyways.

Henry regains himself and he and Keani start into the woods, Michael motions for you to follow, his hand outstretched. You hesitate.

You know that you can’t go back, you've committed treason, they would torture and kill you, or they would wipe your mind and make you do horrible things again... 

At the same time you’re leaving everything you've ever known, your profession, your language, your culture...

You look to Yandah, she smiles and nods.

You take your human’s hand and follow him into the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ///IMPORTANT///  
> Hi everyone! last chapter was crazy huh? anywho, I'm thinking of a sequel "In which troll children are raised among human rebels" but i need to know how many people would be interested in that
> 
> heres some teaser pics of some things that would go down in the sequel  
> http://theladysyk0.tumblr.com/post/109779579731/teaser-pics-for-a-sequel-to-in-which-humanity-is
> 
> So please please PLEASE comment if thats something that you would be interested in, if i get enough comments from enough people I'll make the sequel, otherwise I don't want to make a fanfic of a fanfic of a fanfic because thats just too goddamn meta even for me. however if a sequel is something people want and will actually read then i will write that sequel so goddamn hard.
> 
> vote in the comments below! sequel or no sequel??!!


End file.
